Registered Democratic voters up in California, GOP down

May. 13, 2016

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The number of registered Democratic voters in California has increased since January while Republicans lost ground, according to figures released Thursday by the secretary of state.

The rise of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been cited as an incentive to register to vote both for and against him.

So far, the latest figures show Democrats coming out ahead as 17.27 million registered voters prepare for California's June 7 presidential primary.

Democrats had nearly 44 percent of all registered voters as of early April. Their 7.54 million voters reflect an increase of nearly 100,000 voters since January.

Republicans remained at around 28 percent of the electorate and voters with no party preference are also steady around 24 percent of registered voters.

There were 4.75 million registered Republicans and about 4.12 million voters who declared no party.

Paul Mitchell, a consultant who runs the data tracking firm Political Data Inc., recently said more than 1 million voters have registered since January, based on data from the 58 counties.

Despite the surge, the net increase is much lower because the total also reflects those taken off the rolls because they have moved, changed their names or are no longer eligible.

There was a net increase of more than 230,000 registered voters since the same time before the last presidential election in 2012.

Californians have until May 23 to register and make sure their voter information is up to date.